Bihar CM inaugurates country's biggest paediatrics care centre at Muzaffarpur

PATNA: Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar on Saturday laid foundation stones for the health department’s two projects (worth over Rs 542.10 crore) including a new medical college and hospital at Jhanjharpur in Madhubani district. The new medical college will be built at a cost of Rs 515 crore. The other project was renovation of the buildings in the Shri Krishna Medical College and Hospital (SKMCH), Muzaffarpur. This project will be completed at a cost of Rs 27.10 crore.
Besides these, the CM also inaugurated three projects worth Rs 88.38 crore in Muzaffarpur district including a 100-bed paediatrics intensive care unit (PICU)-cum- research centre and a 60-bed encephalitis ward, both at the SKMCH, and a 100-bed mother-child hospital in the premises of Sadar hospital, Muzaffarpur.
The 100-bed PICU, which is the country’s first and biggest paediatrics care centre is equipped with world class machines and medical equipment. It was built at a cost of Rs 72 crore, while the encephalitis ward (Rs 2.96 crore) and the mother-child hospital at Rs 13.42 crore.
The state government had last year decided to build the PICU in the wake of the death of children on a large scale due to acute encephalitis syndrome (AES).
All these foundation laying and inaugural programmes were conducted through video-conferencing from a health department’s event held at ‘Nek Samvad’ hall at the CM residence here. Deputy CM Sushil Kumar Modi was the chief guest while health minister Mangal Pandey presided over the event. Some other ministers also were present at the event.
Addressing the event through video-conferencing, CM thanked the health department for completing the construction of the much-awaited PICU within the stipulated time-frame. "Now it has become functional and also being utilized for treatment of children," he said.
CM said the state government had last year conducted a special socio-economic survey in five AES-affected blocks of Muzaffarpur district. Based on the findings of the survey, the government had provided benefits under different schemes to the needy and affected families. "Children were enrolled in the nearby schools, all families were provided ration cards, houses were built for them and more anganwadi centres were opened in the AES-affected areas," he said.
Recounting the major schemes of the health department, Nitish said the Patna medical college and hospital (PMCH) was being developed as the world’s biggest 5,400-bed hospital while the IGIMS, Patna and the SKMCH, Muzaffarpur, were being upgraded into 2,500-bed hospitals. The NMCH, Patna, ANMMCH, Gaya, and the DMCH, Darbhanga also were being expanded and upgraded with the addition of more beds.
CM said the expansion-cum-renovation work of 21 district sadar hospitals, out of total 36, would be completed by the year 2022.
He said the immunization against Japanese encephalitis has been completed in 26 districts and for the rest 12 districts, the state government has urged the Centre to make available necessary medicine for the immunization.